West Virginia University has named Layne Veneri and Julie Peng the 2016 Mr. and Ms. Mountaineer. Veneri and Peng were announced as this year's honorees during halftime of the WVU vs. Kansas football game today (Nov. 5) at Milan Puskar Stadium. The awards are given each year as part of WVU's Mountaineer Week festivities to recognize students' exemplary academic achievement and extracurricular involvement.

Few scholars can say they've impacted four generations of students. Through the generosity of anonymous donors, late West Virginia University English department chair Carter Bishop's legacy will continue for even more generations of Mountaineers through an annual scholarship fund.

Carol Amendola, coordinator of the bachelor of social work program sent students into the field to learn about how a water crisis can affect a community. Students in Social Work 324: Social Work with Communities and Organizations worked on a six-week community engagement project, focusing on Scott's Run, an unincorporated mining community in Monongalia County, West Virginia.

Psychology researchers at West Virginia University have discovered evidence of a genetic basis for fearing dental treatment. The study is one of the first to suggest that genetics, in addition to environmental factors, can be a basis for patients fearing dental treatment.

Offered jointly through the WVU Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design and the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, the Geographic Information Systems and Spatial Analysis Graduate Certificate program consists of four graduate level courses and one independent study requirement. It is ideal for graduate students and working professionals who desire specialized training in GIS, remote sensing and applied spatial analysis.

The WVU Foundation established the awards in 1985 as a way to celebrate faculty who have established patterns of distinguished teaching and exceptional innovation in teaching methods, course and curriculum design and instructional tools.

Earl Scime, the Oleg P. Jefimenko Professor of Physics and chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at West Virginia University, has been named the recipient of the 2015 Heebink Award for Distinguished Service to West Virginia.

A global team of astronomers, including one from West Virginia University, have for the first time detected repeating short-duration bursts of radio waves from an enigmatic source which is likely located well beyond the edge of the Milky Way galaxy. The findings indicate that these "fast radio bursts," or FRBs, come from an extremely powerful object which occasionally produces multiple bursts in under a minute.

West Virginia University has experienced an unprecedented wave of attention and accolades in recent months as its research achievements are being recognized in a variety of ways, the Board of Governors heard during its meeting Thursday.

West Virginia University Assistant Professor of Political Science Patrick Hickey believes that it is very likely that President Barack Obama will be able to win the Senate's approval of a moderate, qualified nominee in the wake of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia?s death Saturday.

Sean McWilliams, assistant professor of physics and astronomy in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, is a member of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, or LIGO, the research team that detected these invisible ripples in spacetime.

Sarah E. Hayes, M.S., M.P.H., a WVU doctoral student in psychology, represented the West Virginia University School of Dentistry at the Hinman Student Research Symposium in October at the University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center in Memphis.

Lynne Cossman, professor and chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at West Virginia University, has been named co-editor for the journal Population Research and Policy. Her appointment begins January 2016.

Today (Nov. 9), the Department of History and the College of Law present a panel of experts who will discuss the history of mass migration in Europe. "The Movement of Peoples: Past, Present and Future" will be presented from 6-8 p.m. at the College of Law Event Hall. Free parking will be available in the law school parking lot. The panel will feature G. Daniel Cohen, associate professor of history at Rice University; Gabor Demzsky, former mayor of Budapest; and WVU faculty.